


the sun can only burn for you and i;

by crystallinedewdrops



Category: DCU (Comics), The Authority
Genre: Hurt/Comfort, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-09-24
Updated: 2018-09-24
Packaged: 2019-07-16 12:45:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,926
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16086383
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crystallinedewdrops/pseuds/crystallinedewdrops
Summary: He owes this to them after what he had done.





	the sun can only burn for you and i;

**Author's Note:**

> takes place shorty after _The Authority: Revolution_ comic, because they needed to talk. Badly.
> 
> title's from Taciturn by Stone Sour. and any grammar mistakes are mine.

There are times when you think you've got everything you ever wanted in your life, that you could not have been happier, that your past would not catch up with you because you have moved on from it, made something for yourself.

But fate is a cruel thing, and sooner or later, it’ll make you face your demons, the very ones that you thought you buried.

That is when your life takes a turn for the worse, it spirals downwards so fast you can barely stop it, can barely help it, and soon you find yourself at the bottom, right back where you started, and this time with no one around to help you because you have pushed them away, thinking that you had done the right thing in doing so.

Oh, but you didn't.

//

Midnighter has always struggled with himself, with who he is as a person; Apollo did not have a problem in defining himself, making something out of nothing has always been the guy's specialty it seems. Midnighter loves him, loves the family he had found all by himself. He will not lie about that even if someone threatened his life and told him to say that he did not love them, but there were times where he questioned himself, of whether he was human or not. He was made to kill, remorselessly, and nearly succeeded in murdering his own husband and daughter and the rest of the team; believing a lie because of his insecurity and fear, where does that leave him? What does that make him, now?

He had killed Henry Bendix, and while there is a bit of satisfaction from ending that fucker's life with his own bare hands, the damage he has wrought on Jenny Q and Apollo was greater than that.

The guilt of what he did to them — it overwhelms him, threatening to drown him.

Roaming the new Carrier, computer still rebooting itself from the brainwashing, he wonders where he will end up now. Apollo is somewhere in this carrier, and finding him would be hard given how this shiftship is different from the one they all knew and lived in; its larger, still recovering from what Bendix did to its systems. Distantly, he remembers Angie telling jenny sparks that their old Carrier was akin to a merchant ship, smaller, with an adequate defense systems that fits it.

The computer gives him data upon data, yet despite that it doesn't know this Carrier's infrastructure so well so it is all speculations. It says something that it doesn't hurt as much as it had when he first woke up bound to a cold slab of metal, doctors all around him.

Midnighter told his daughter that he needed a shower, that she can do whatever she wants now, but if he was honest with himself he had ran away from her concerned eyes, seeking some time for himself to think over what has happened in the last few years.

Being around people is the last thing he wants right now.

And, if he was even more honest with himself, he is afraid. Afraid of what the two most important people in his life feel about him, of what will happen — just because he knows he deserves everything they would throw at him does not mean he isn't afraid of losing them.

That is the problem with thinking that you were doing the right thing.

//

Apollo found the rest of the team right where he left them when he had flown off to kill the alien that had impersonated him and fucked with Midnighter’s head.

Jenny Q was standing near a body and at a closer look he saw that it was Bendix, head and spine literally torn from the rest of his body. Immediately Apollo knew who did it, and a part of him could not have been any happier; there are bloody boot prints that lead away from the scene. Looking around Apollo found that Jack was in a bad shape, bruised and beaten, and Angie doesn't look that much better — she has never been good at hiding her emotions, even with all of the nanites. They all have suffered, emotionally and physically.

Turning back to Bendix's body and dismembered head, he grabbed Jenny Q and moved her away from it before proceeding to burn the asshole until there was nothing left of him. Jenny looked at the ashes and leftover scorch marks before turning to him.

“Was that absolutely necessary?” Her tone was genuine, inquisitive, and not the sardonic one she was talking in earlier. Nodding, apollo cleared his throat before giving her the reasons.

“He always finds a way to come back to life, so burning him is logical. Besides, he deserves more than just this.” He gave a glare at the ashes, voice full of barely repressed rage. He is angry, at everything, at himself, at Midnighter, but he holds it back not because he wants to but because he needs to. Jenny Q has seen enough as it is, and he would rather keep her away from all of this mess as much as he can, at least until he patches things up with Midnighter.

In a quiet voice, she told him that said man went to the showers. Apollo pulled her to him, held her close, “I will make this right,” he murmured, knowing that she heard him because of the way her arms wound around him tightly. The hug couldn't have lasted for more than a few seconds, a quick one of reassurance, but it felt like eternity to him. After they let go of each other, Apollo followed the bloody boot prints from earlier deeper into the Carrier.

The wound hurts -- burns -- as if someone had dumped an entire bag of salt and a bottle of vinegar on it. It is still raw, never healing properly even in the three years that midnighter was gone. After he left them without a word or an explanation, it felt like everything came down upon and around Apollo, he watched helplessly as The Authority disbanded, as his daughter cried herself to sleep every night, and he hated himself for not knowing how to comfort her anymore than he knew how to comfort himself. He tried to build a life for both of them, a normal one where both could be happy, and they were happy for a time. But the restlessness, the feeling of self-hatred and anger and pure, unadulterated hurt made him hunt down Midnighter for a few months, and he remembers those meetings because of him begging his lover to come back, saying that it does not have to be this way.

Midnighter is as stubborn as he is, he knows that, yet he tried to bring him back anyways, if not for himself then for Jenny Q, he kept telling himself that. But seeing that it had no effect on Midnighter, after an entire year of it, Apollo gave up. if Midnighter wanted to return, he knew where they were.

After that he never tried to contact him again. Letting go of someone who knows you so deeply and intimately, who has been there for you just as you have been for them hurts more than any physical wound. More than being deprived of the sun. The wound never healed, and it only opened wider when he knew the truth behind it all.

This Carrier is larger than the one he knew, Apollo does not know how large exactly but he must have spent quite a long time trying to find Midnighter to no avail. This feels more like a deja vu by the minute, and his body — his heart — aches.

An idea hit him then, and he called up a door to San Francisco. Apollo had told M where the apartment is, and if he wants to settle things then they are going to do it by his rules. He is tired of being the one to reach out, of being the one left behind.

if Midnighter wants to talk, he knows where to find him.

//

Jenny Q found Midnighter in one of the many rooms with the help of the Carrier — it's a chatterbox, really, and it wasn't that hard to find him with its help. He has his back to the entrance, he saw her reflection on the one-way glass-like material in front him, with her cigarette in her mouth and hands deep in her jacket's pockets.

( leather jacket, just like his. The thought came unbidden and it made something in his chest constrict. )

She looks nothing like the girl he left behind, and he wonders not for the first time how has she grown up that fast in such a period of time as three years. He did the math, she is eight years old now. Or should be, and yet she is a teenager. He turned his head to look at her as she came into the room, walking with purpose and never breaking eye contact, the emotions flickering through her eyes makes his heart ache, makes him want to hold her — she is still his daughter, still the girl he raised, and he is angry at himself for leaving her behind.

For believing a lie.

She finally came to stand next to him and stared into whichever dimension they are journeying through right now; it was dark, with flashes of dazzling sapphire blue and splashes of hot magenta, radiating white flakes falls around the carrier like a snow blizzard. Both of them stood there, watching all of this without saying a single word, but there is tension in the air.

Midnighter has had time to think for himself, and she deserves an apology for what he did to her, to Apollo. he has hurt the two of them so deeply, and would do anything to make it right. He would lie down his life for both of them, or even leave them if they wanted him to, but all he needs is for them to hear him out. So he steels his nerves, and without looking away from the spectacle happening outside, he begins to open himself up.

“I’m sorry, for what I did to you. Both of you.” He needn't say who the other person is, they both know who. “I know what I did is unforgivable, I know that it was wrong of me. And for hurting you, I am sorry.” There is a lump in his throat and tears blurring his vision now, and yet he does not stop there. He can't. But he also cannot let her see his tears, so he closes his eyes instead. “I regret leaving you, I thought I was doing the right thing but it turned out that all it was was a lie.” He admits through gritted teeth, through the anger at himself and the billion and one emotions he is feeling at this very second, but he holds that back. His eyes are still closed, so he cannot see what her reaction is.

“I know every probability in existence and yet I still believed a lie and all it did was hurt you. I should have listened to you back then but goddamn I was so convinced that I couldn't see it for what it was. I–” he was cut off when he felt arms circle around him, and Midnighter opens his eyes in a surprise to see that Jenny Q is hugging him tightly, clutching at the back of his trenchcoat, and that is what undoes him at that moment. Falling down on his knees M gathers her in his arms and holds her just as tightly, but still holding back the tears. He cannot let her see him like this.

( he is supposed to be stronger than this, but then again he is supposed to be a lot of things and all of which he is not, not entirely. )

He knows how long they hugged each other so desperately because the damned computer tells him, but he chooses to ignore it. When they separate, he notices that she is crying, her tears staining her cheeks and his costume. He wipes them away gently.

“You didn't say why,” her voice is so quiet and so full of agony, and what was his reason for leaving her? his fear of becoming what Bendix has always intended for him to become.

“Because I am an idiot,” M says in attempt at humor and he can see that it did not work as he intended.

“Because I was afraid…” he corrects himself. He watches as the emotions flicker in her eyes again. She is a lot like Apollo, in that way. Both have their emotions visible to the world, but he saw how much she is trying to be like him too, and that makes him feel something akin to hurt but also proud.

He owes this to her. After all, he was the one who ruined her life when he left. ( both of their lives. )

//

The apartment is an absolute wreck and that makes him even more enraged, because he knows who did this, who nearly torn the front door from its hinges and had literally frozen and broken Jenny's bedroom door to pieces. They were there when it happened after all but still, now that the fight is over seeing what he carefully built out of nothing looking like a hurricane went through made the hatred and rage for Bendix even more intense than before; apparently it wasn't enough tearing his family apart but the motherfucker also tore through what he spent years making.

Apollo began to meticulously clean his home, putting whatever furniture that wasn't broken back to its rightful place, or finding a new place for it. It takes him hours to clean the entire mess and throw away the irreparable pieces. Even if they decide to live on the carrier now that they are back together — if he was honest, the team's fate was unknown at this point but he doesn't think about that — this is still his home, he made it his home the minute he got it. They can take it away from his cold, dead hands because he will not give up on it. If the team really got back together, then this will be his refuge when things get too hard to handle.

By the time he is finished, Apollo feels the exhaustion settle deep into his bones. Now that the anger is gone, all that’s left is a familiar numbness that comforts him and distresses him at the same time. It brings back memories with it, memories that he would rather not remember. He busies himself by going to the kitchen and getting some ingredients out. He found cooking always helps him as a distraction. He ends up making red-velvet cake.

As he’s finishing, he hears a knock on the door, which is unusual. He doesn't know that many people, not enough to warrant a visit, anyway. After the authority disbanded, when he and his daughter made this apartment theirs, he made sure they would stay hidden. Despite the fact that everyone and their newborns knew who The Authority were and thus would be recognized on sight, he made sure. So Apollo, even though it had pained him, had to go back into hiding along with Jenny Quantum, albeit more in plain sight than in abandoned places like back then… back when it was only him and midnighter.

Apollo turns off the oven and, after making sure that the cake was okay, goes to open the door cautiously and peer from behind it. Even seeing the man he mostly had expected to see standing there, still wearing his leathers, surprises him for reasons he does not know.

 _So much for hiding in plain sight_ , he wryly thought as he removes the tiny chain and opens the door to his — to Midnighter. ( he is more than that to him, but his heart had been betrayed before. Conflicted on how to feel about Midnighter, the very man who knows him so intimately, who would have thought. )

The two of them stand opposite of each other in silence, just staring at one another. Finally, Apollo steps away from the door and goes back to the kitchen, trusting — hoping, praying — that the other man accepts his unsaid invitation, that he doesn’t run again. Hoping that they can fix whatever's left of their relationship because truth be told, he missed the man so terribly. That longing wars with his anger at M. Apollo wants to make this right, wants to talk about it first instead of having M disappear on him. In retrospect, he regrets what he said to M that day the man packed everything and left.

( he knew him more than anyone else, but his words that day were meant to elicit a reaction from M. They were empty words. Of course he would know him even in death. But a person changes, and he was so blind to how their own team, his own family, had changed after Jenny Sparks died. )

He hears the door close, the sound so soft that without his super-hearing he wouldn't have heard it at all. Letting out a sigh, Apollo gets the cake out of the oven and makes himself busy. He’s preparing for a long, awkward silence. With both of them unsure of how to act after everything that happened between them and with the truth coming out that they were played all along... well, it’s not entirely unexpected really. He senses, rather than hears, that Midnighter is also in the kitchen. He puts the small plate with the cake on the table, right in front of where M is standing, before helping himself with a piece of it.

There is a tense and awkward silence between them and around the apartment, and if this were any other situation Apollo would have laughed but given the circumstances, he can't find that in himself.

At long last, M breaks the silence with a cough.

“Did... you make that?” he asks. For the first time Apollo really looks at him and sees the awkwardness of his movement, the anxiety of his place, the way he holds himself as if he was ready for a fight — no, for a rejection.

Swallowing, Apollo nods, still not sure what to say, mostly because he has a lot of things he wants to say but no way to phrase any of them correctly. So he opts for silence, consciously making himself relax.

Quietness fell once more, broken only by the sounds of their breathing and, if he listened closely, he could hear that their breath slightly in sync. After three years apart, Apollo thought, not unkindly. It makes him feel something that isn't rage at everything or at himself, for once. M breaks the silence again.

“I'm sorry, Apollo.” His voice cuts through the tense silence like a knife through butter; it isn't something Apollo expected, really, but it isn't unwelcome either. M’s hands are clenched into fists on the table and he’s staring intently at what's left of the piece of cake he has on his plate. “For everything I have said and done to you, I don't really expect you to forgive me for it, but I wouldn’t blame you or hold it against you if you did.

“I never really thought I belonged somewhere.” His expression is stormy and looking more like he’s ready for a fight than anything else. “And the thing is that I am happy with you, but a part of me didn't feel that way. It ate away at me. I didn't feel like we were doing something good. I didn't feel like I belonged,” M laces his fingers together, his shoulders tense, and Apollo can hear his voice cracking through his gritted teeth. He remembers this in distant memory, with Midnighter angry at… _oh._

“When I saw the future – or rather, what Bendix made me believe to be the future – I saw who I became. A part of me always knew that I was never made for this kind of life. That this life, this heroism, never suited someone me. That I couldn't be like you. Or anyone else.” He straightens his back so that he is leaning on the back of the chair, eyes looking through Apollo rather than at him, his jaw muscles clenching so hard Apollo could see the minute-jump of them. But what really catches Apollo off guard isn't the apologies, nor the anger, but rather the tears collecting in his eyes.

_Oh._

“I believed what a man who fucked both of us up had told me, a lie that I believed because of my own stupid issues, and I ended up hurting you. I am so sorry, Apollo.” Midnighter closes his eyes, a shield of sorts against the tears, a wall against the emotions, and shakes his head.

 _So this is what heartbreak feels like_.

Silence, once again. His vision a blur because of the tears, Apollo pushes his plate aside and unhesitantly places his hand on top of M's hands, lacing their fingers together and knuckles clenching so tightly.

Heartbreak feels like watching as your lover ( _he never stopped loving him, even when he was angry at him_ ) blames himself for everything because he feels responsible, feels like he deserves that blame. It feels like the anger at the man who fucked both of you up so badly returning with vengeance.

“It wasn't your fault.” It feels inadequate, saying that, but Apollo continued on. “'Nighter, look at me.”

slowly M looks at, not through, him. with M’s emotions all visible to him, even though he is trying to hide them, Apollo now grasps both of his hands in his own.

“It was not your fault. Don't blame yourself for this — you told me to kill you, you aren't responsible for what happened to you. Bendix manipulated you, he is the one to blame. Not you. Never you.”

“I thought I was doing something right.” Midnighter admits, biting his lips so hard that he nearly tears the skin. Apollo could see that he was beating himself up, and he hated himself for not knowing how to comfort him. But he will be damned if he did not try.

“He manipulated you into _thinking_ it was right. You told me to kill you but I could never do that to you, and yet I still fought you because I knew I could save you somehow. I know you, Midnighter, and back then I knew you were fighting the brainwashing because you were holding yourself back in your punches. So it isn't your fault what happened to you or me, do not put the blame on yourself.”

“I busted your ear–”

“And I punched you hard enough to bruise you.”

Midnighter looks at him in silence, tears sliding down his face now, over and under the mask. He takes back one of his hands to wipe them away. Apollo doesn't mind the silence now that they both have said what they wanted to say for so long, but his heart breaks at the sight. With one hand he rubs M's gloved knuckles with his thumb, while the other wipes the rest of the tears away. A small show of affection, of caring, but for both of them it says a lot of things. His own tears start flowing down his cheeks, but he doesn't mind that either.

“I don't deserve you…” Midnighter finally says, voice jagged and hoarse yet somehow soft, catching on the last syllable of _you_.

“Let me be the judge of that.” Apollo raises his black-gloved hand and places a soft kiss on the underside of M’s arm, where his pulse is. “Remember what I said on our wedding day?” He asks, raising his head from where it was bent down, the hand now enclosed between both of his own.

Midnighter nods.

“‘Eternally yours.’”

“Yes. Always and forever.”

“It still sounds as cheesy as it did back then.”

“Oh? Well in that case I should have said, ‘eternally yours, moon to my sun’ back then.” He can see the smile the other is trying so hard to fight.

“Oh god that's worse,” his silent laughter, his apparent delight, betrays what he says.

“I have a few others up my sleeve if you want to hear them.”

//

M leaves to sit in the living room, mindlessly surfing through the channels from what he can hear. After Apollo finishes cleaning up the dishes and putting the rest of the cake in the fridge he joins him, sitting and relaxing against the couch beside M. They have told each other everything, and M had said that he apologized to Jenny before he came here and that she will also come by.

“Might as well have kicked me out of the Carrier to go to you,” he had said with a hint of pride in his voice, and that very same pride echoed in Apollo's smirk.

That was a few minutes ago, and now they are sitting beside each other, talking about nothing consequential really. Just like before. But Apollo can tell that there is something bothering Midnighter because he is still tense, he just wonders when it will come out to light.

There is absolutely nothing interesting on any of the channels — aside from what's happening outside of their own little space, that is. The news channels all talk about something political and Apollo sneaks a glance at Midnighter, to gauge his reactions. He is still tense, as if at any minute he would bolt out the window and into the night. He had removed his mask a while ago, after their talk in the kitchen, leaving his face bare.

An unexpected pang of longing hits him and he quickly looks back at the TV screen in front of them. Having talked about everything and nothing all at once they fall into silence, once more. He is beginning to hate the silence.

He isn't really focusing on the TV as much as he was drowning in his thoughts of what-ifs, so it takes him a few seconds to notice that M is looking at him. ( what he would do to make all of that tension in his body, the conflict in his eyes, go away. )

“Jenny is, apparently, putting the team back together.”

Ah.

“Yeah, she’s wanted to do that for three years now, guess she's finally getting what she wanted.”

What she really wanted is her parents together, she did not care much for The Authority as a team, yes they are her family but as of three years and possibly more, Angie and Jack weren't all that attentive to her. Lousy uncle and aunt as she had said a few hours ago. So no, The Authority being a team did not concern her as much as the fact that her parents had broken up three years ago with no explanation.

They looked at each other in the quiet that followed.

“You're going back.”

Apollo has to smile at how perceptive M can be. His tone was more a matter-of-fact rather than anything else, and it is a fact.

“Someone has to keep an eye on her, and she is my daughter,” just like she is yours too is left unsaid but clear. Midnighter nods and then sighs, his shoulders dropping a bit.

“Well, it's decided then. Do you want to go back now or stay here for a while?”

Apollo narrows his eyes, feeling as if he is missing something. His confusion must have shown on his face because M shoots him a rueful, anr almost shy, smile and says, voice teasing with something else at the edges, “You didn't think I would leave the two of you alone again?”

“No — I.. no.”

“So it's decided that I will go back with you, to the Carrier.” _to The Authority._ “and I already talked to Jenny about this.”

For a few minutes, Apollo can only stare at him, then he breaks into a grin, beaming with joy at M who looks just as happy. Apollo takes the risk and throws an arm around his lover's shoulders, bringing him closer and for a fleeting second he thinks that he might have overstepped a bit, but Midnighter leans into the touch.

“Can we stay here for a while? I don't really want to go back now,” Apollo says, hopeful. He just wants to stay like this for hours, in this place that he built all on his own. ( for himself, for his family. )

To his delight and happiness, M shrugs and agrees. He fills him in about his conversation with Jenny Q; how proud of her he is.

Finally, after going through half of the channels m settles on one that's airing Prison Break. Apollo raises an eyebrow, more surprised than confused that M would watch something like this. Not even halfway through the episode and they were eating snacks while making comments on what's happening.

That's when Jenny Q decides to show up.

The room's lights were shut with the only sources of light coming from the TV, the street lamps outside, and the hallway, so both of them notice the brilliant blue light of the dimensional door opening right outside the room. Apollo can tell it's Jenny from her heartbeat, caught between a nervous fluttering and steadiness.

They should get used to the dimensional doors being blue rather than orange-yellow.

Jenny comes into the room, looking at them looking at her — must have made a pretty funny sight, with two grown men sitting on the floor, coffee table pushed aside to make room to sprawl and be comfortable, two bags of chips opened in front of them, and various chocolate wrappers around them — and she must have reached a conclusion because Apollo can see the way her shoulders sag as if a heavy weight was lifted, and then she glances at the TV and her eyes brighten up.

She wastes no time settling comfortably on the couch behind them.

//

Everything goes back to normal, more or less. There is a noticeable tension between Jack and Midnighter, and Apollo has a feeling it has less to do with what happened with Bendix, and more to do with the fact that Jack is, apparently, a homophobe. He himself was there when it showed its ugly face.

He had a suspicion since the comments he threw about them, but to have it confirmed… that's something else.

The public — and by that, he means the politicians rather than the people — has been less receptive and happy of their return, but they have always been like that. It will never change, Apollo thinks.

Even though his relationship with Midnighter was now mended, they are still awkward around each other as if this is their first time. and in another perspective, it kind of is. Their first time back together after a break up. Three years apart changes a person.

Still, he is happy. His family is back together, the man who plagued both himself and M is dead with no way to come back to life, so he couldn't ask for more.

//

M stares outside at the dimension they’re traveling through, unnaturally pitch black. It’s surprisingly calming to look at. The past few weeks have been nothing but hectic, to put it simply, what with the team being back together and watching his daughter fight alongside them. He is worried about her, and thanks to the fucking computer, he sees all the probabilities where she could be hurt, so he makes sure that she doesn’t hurt herself out there. he is proud of her, why wouldn’t he be? But still, he worries.

The team is back together now, and he clearly disapproves of having kids on the types of missions they go. Habib is still inexperienced and not to mention he is sixteen years old with the entire weight of the world on his shoulders and inside his chest. Jenny Quantum is only eight. He hates the odds against them even if they are the two powerful members in the universe. They are only children. They should not be fighting battles they have nothing to do with.

Jenny Quantum is the spirit of the universe, this universe, but she is only a child. Clenching his teeth and glaring at the window, his hatred for whoever, whatever, decided to make a child carry such a heavy burden and power increasing the more he thinks about it.

Midnighter will do anything to protect her.

He senses Apollo before he sees him stepping into the room he holed himself in. The computer tells him the changes in the temperature, calculating away every picosecond that passes as the other man walks towards him. M doesn't turn away from the window, ignoring whatever the machines are telling him, he knows that Apollo will never do anything to him.

( not without reason, and even then he will do it only to stop him, the man himself told him this. And despite everything, there is very few he trusts more than Apollo. )

“Brooding again?” Apollo asks, teasingly, as he comes to a stop beside M. The dimension outside is dark and one can barely make out the shapes of the strange creatures lurking around the Carrier, so he sees the reflection of them in the glass so clearly. There is a smile playing on Apollo's lips.

“I was not brooding, thank you very much. Just thinking.”

“Right, and I'm Queen Mary of Scots.”

He shoots him a withering look with no heat behind it, and he is sure his lover sees it reflected in the glass. Apollo steps forward and then spins so he is leaning against the glass-like window, arms crossed and a proud smirk on his face. There are crows feet beside his eyes, laugh lines around his mouth. He looks relaxed, happy.

They trade quips and inside jokes, and for the first time in three years Midnighter feels lighter somehow, can feel himself relax from his troubling thoughts. The Carrier taps into the bleed, painting the secluded room in reds; he can fool himself into thinking that nothing has changed, but deep down he knows that it has. A lot of things have changed.

God, he missed the sound of Apollo's laugh. He missed him.

M steps forward, reaching out with one hand to cup the side of Apollo's face, stroking his cheek with his thumb. when Apollo leans into the touch, M closes the distance between them, kissing him softly. Apollo returns the kiss and his lips still feel the same on his own.

They part, and M can feel his heart beating just a bit too fast, feels almost overwhelmed by the clear love and a bit of surprise that he sees in his eyes. Like magnets pulled together, they kiss again but more passionately, Apollo's arms wrapping around him and pulling him closer.

Midnighter does not know how to say the words he wants so desperately to say, so instead he shows him how much he has missed him, how much he loves him.

Three years, six weeks, and two days. A lifetime and more.

In Apollo's arms, alone in a room where no one will bother them, he feels the unsaid words Apollo is kissing into his mouth, down his neck, his body, into his heart and soul: _welcome home._


End file.
